IAAF World Championships London 2017: Top 10 Moments

We take a look back at 10 of the best moments from the biggest IAAF World Championships in history.

01/08/2017 08:00

Men's 10,000m

It wasn't the double golden farewell that Mo Farah had wished for, but he opened the London championships with victory in one of the toughest races of his career. In front of a packed stadium, the distance running legend rekindled the spirit of London 2012 and delivered a win for an expectant home crowd.

Women's 100m

In one of the first of many shocks on the track, American Tori Bowie won the world 100m title by the thickness of her vest. Jamaica's pre-race favourite Elaine Thompson didn't produce the win she was expected to, and Bowie came through in the final strides to dive over the line for her first individual gold.

Hero the Hedgehog

Words can't do justice to describe how incredible Hero the Hedgehog has been, so let these tweets tell the story.

Men's 4x100m relay

Possibly the biggest cheer of the championships was reserved for Great Britain's victorious 4x100m men's relay team. The quartet of CJ Ujah, Adam Gemili, Danny Talbot and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake produced the best performance in British relay history to claim gold. Unfortunately, the race saw a sad ending to Usain Bolt's phenomenal career as the Jamaican pulled up injured on the home straight.

Men's 400m hurdles

No athlete has encapsulated our championship slogan of #BeTheNext better than 21-year-old hurdler Karsten Warholm. The Norwegian won his first global medal, upsetting pre-race favourites and then went on to deliver one of the most memorable celebrations of the championships as he paraded round the track and frolicked in the sand pit with a viking helmet on.

Women's 100m hurdles

London may not have delivered all the pre-determined fairytales fans had expected, but Australia's Sally Pearson was without doubt one of the best stories. The 2012 Olympic champion had battled years of injuries. Returning to the world stage for the first time in four years, she showed all the experience and composure to hold her race together and finish first. Her shock reaction and call for the fans to help locate her mum in her post-race interview added to the beauty of the spectacle.

Women's 1500m

Arguably the race of the championships, the women's 1500m saw a collection of the greatest metric mile runners in history do battle in an epic. Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon held firm for gold while consummate championship performer Jenny Simpson of the USA and South Africa's 800m Olympic champion Caster Semenya came in second and third, with Britain's Laura Muir narrowly missing a medal.

Women's 3000m steeplechase

Of all the shocks of the championships, seeing Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs run away with an American one-two in the 3000m steeplechase was right up there as the most astonishing. Kenya are frequently atop the podium in the steeplechase, but to see two athletes from the USA run away from the world's best East Africans was something nobody could have predicted.

Festival of Race Walks

The world's best race walkers couldn't have wished for a more fitting backdrop and perfect weather for the World Championship races. In front of Buckingham Palace and Admiralty Arch, Yohann Diniz of France and Ines Henriques of Portugal were crowned 50km champions - Henriques the first women's 50km champion - and Jiayu Yang and Eider Arevalo win in the 20km race.

Guinness World Record

On the final day of the championships, London organisers were awarded the Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for an IAAF World Championships event. Across the 10 days of the championships more than 705,000 tickets were purchased. Of all sessions, it was the final morning of athletics on Saturday 12 August which was best attended, with 56,620 tickets sold.